Put The Needle On The Record - Week #43

Put The Needle On The Record Week #43 Fine Young Cannibals - The Raw And The Cooked

For this weeks feature we go back to January 1989 and the Fine Young Cannibals album by The Raw And The Cooked.

"The Raw And The Cooked" was the 2nd album released by Fine Young Cannibals and is easily there best and most successful album and even includes a cover version of The Buzzcocks song "Ever Fallen In Love"!

It was also my soundtrack on a train journey to London to attend a training course in early 1990!

It is a fabulous album with quality tracks from beginning to end and has a very distinct sound, unlike anything else released at the time. The album's title is taken from a book by French anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss. There was also a companion remix album released called "The Raw And The Remixed" released in 1990 featuring various remixes of tracks featured on the original album, for me the remix album was disappointing.

To show the strength of this album, no fewer than 8 singles were released off it, the album only featured 10 tracks! The first single released was The Buzzcocks cover of "Ever Fallen In Love", released 3 years before the album was released (which reached number 12 in the UK Singles chart), "She Drives Me Crazy" (which reached number 5 in the UK Singles chart and Number 1 on the American Billboard Hot 100), "Good Thing" (which reached number 7 in the UK Singles Chart and again topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the states), "Don't Look Back" (which reached number 34 in the UK Singles Chart and number 11 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in America), "I'm Not The Man I Used To Be", my favourite track on the album (which reached number 20 in the UK Singles Chart), "I'm Not Satisfied" (which reached number 46 in the UK Singles Chart), "It's OK (It's Alright)" was released as a single in Germany, whilst "Tell Me What" was released as a single in France.

The album reached number 1 in the UK Albums chart and also number 1 on the Billboard 200 album chart in the states.

Track Listing

She Drives Me Crazy
Good Thing
I'm Not The Man I Used To Be
I'm Not Satisfied
Tell Me What
Don't Look Back
It's Ok (It's Alright)
Don't Let It Get You Down
As Hard As It Is
Ever Fallen In Love

If you have this album in your collection, dig it out and give it a spin!